Welcome to the August 26, 2009 edition of the Cavalcade of Risk! For those of you joining us for the first time, we here at Political Calculations are mostly known in the blog carnival world as the home of On the Moneyed Midways, an "über-carnival" where each week, we present the best posts we found in our review of the week's business and somehow-money-related blog carnivals.

In our last edition of OMM, we featured excerpts from another blog carnival host's rant about off-topic contributions to blog carnivals, which appears to have really hit home with this week's contributors. The last time we hosted the Cavalcade of Risk, we had 48 contributors. This time, 30. And that's counting the clueless goons who apparently didn't get the memo....

Well, non-memo reading clueless goons, welcome to Political Calculations' edition of the Cavalcade of Risk. In addition to that "über-carnival" thing we mentioned earlier, we're also very specifically known by fans of the Cavalcade of Risk as being the people who created the Cavalcade of Risk Contributed Blog Post Rating System, which we last deployed in a special double issue of the Cavalcade of Risk (Part 1 and Part 2).

You see, we believe that one of the best ways to discourage people from making bad decisions is to make them feel the pain from making a bad decision. If, for example, you've contributed an off-topic post to this edition of the Carnival of Risk, or just a really badly written one, we're going to make it hurt. How? Well, let's let the Cavalcade of Risk Blog Post Rating System do the talking for us. Here's how to interpret the ratings:

Blog Post Rating System for Blog Carnivals
Topicality [Capital Letter]	Information Quality [Small Letter]	Readability [Number]
A - Fully On Topic B - Related Topic C - Way Off Topic D - Spam	a - Makes You Smarter b - Makes You Informed c - Makes You Stupider	1 - Highly Readable 2 - Average Quality 3 - Potentially Painful

So, in using this system, a post with the ranking Aa1 is one that is fully on topic, will make you smarter and is highly readable. By contrast, reading a post with the ranking Dc3 would be like jabbing bamboo splints under your fingernails and then using them to hammer railroad spikes, but less pleasant. And before you say anything, we do know that "c" should say "Makes you more stupid," but we figure that if you have read or have written enough of those kind of posts that your language processing skills will be shot anyway.

Who knew that just contributing a post to the Cavalcade of Risk could be so, well, risky?

We won't keep you waiting any more. We've presented all the contributed posts below in the chronological order we received them in the dynamic table below. You can click the column headings to sort them either from best to worst or vice versa if you'd prefer to filter the wheat from the chaff. Non-memo reading clueless goons, you asked for it....

Cavalcade of Risk for 26 August 2009

Date Contributed	Post	Blog	Rating	Remark
2009-08-11	Sugar ETF Surges On Supply Concerns	ETF Database	Cb2	Submitted by Jimmy Atkinson, this post by Michael Johnston considers the reasons for the recently rising price of sugar and what Exchange Traded Funds might be worthy of investment at this time. Johnston discloses at the end of the article that he has holds no positions. We have no interest....
2009-08-11	100 Money-Saving Hacks for Living Large on a Student Budget	Online Courses	Dc2	Barbara Williams submitted this article by Rose Jensen, which literally lists 100 hacks for college students to save money. Things like: "get a job" and "live at home". You would think a list like this might qualify as being informative. You'd be wrong....
2009-08-11	100 Productive Ways to Spend Your Summer Vacation	Online Courses	Dc3	Barbara Williams strikes again with another article by Rose Jensen - this time though, it's all about 100 productive ways for students to spend their summer vacation. Really timely news just as school is resuming….
2009-08-13	Things That Make a Trade Show Rental Service a Quality One	Trade Show Rental Service	Db2	Ramil Parkson has a short checklist that you, dear reader, should consider in making sure your trade show rental service experience is a quality one. Say what you will, at least it's not 100 items long….
2009-08-14	New Money Rules for Financial Security - #1. Handling Risk	FIRE Finance	Ab2	FIRE Finance provides the first post submitted to the Cavalcade of Risk that deals with risk! Here, the FIRE team offers their take on Rule #1 for CNN's 7 new rules of financial security.
2009-08-15	Insurance You Can Do Without - Identity Theft Insurance	Canadian Finance	Ab2	Tom argues that identity theft insurance offers too little benefit to justify purchasing it and suggests some pretty straightforward steps to protect your interests.
2009-08-16	An Emergeny Fund for Every Emergency	Cash Money Life	Db2	No Debt Plan's Kevin describes in this guest post how he and his wife use multiple emergency funds (car maintenance, home maintenance, etc.) to be sure they have money for certain things when they unexpectedly might need it. Sounds good, right? And then it goes straight to spam as he describes how to set up multiple emergency fund accounts at ING Direct so you can too.
2009-08-19	Do Leveraged ETFs Have a Place in Client Portfolios?	ETF Database	Db3	Jimmy Atkinson submits another post from the ETF Database, but this time, after establishing that leveraged ETFs are controversial as they are being banned by "firm after firm" and suggesting that the dangers from not recognizing their "risk profile" might obscure their "potential upsides", the post requires "Free Registration" to "Continue Reading"....
2009-08-20	Option Hedge Strategy: 2 by 1 Put Spread is Cheap and Effective	Everyday Finance	Bb2	Dan describes how a sophisticated trader might hedge their investments from the risk of losses by using put options.
2009-08-20	Your Home Is Not An Investment	Bargaineering	Ba1	Jim Wang picks up his pitchfork in this devil's advocate post arguing many reasons why your home should not be considered to be an investment.
2009-08-21	Dealing with Collection Agencies- Tips on Handling Collection Agencies	Financial Highway	Cb2	If the debt collectors are after you, Ray's post will tell you what you need to know to keep them from being too intrusive.
2009-08-21	Looming Threat: H1N1 Outbreak in the Fall	Healthcare Economist	Ab2	Jason Shafrin's advises that it's not worth getting worked up about the swine flu because there's so little you can do to avoid it. He lists the few things that the CDC recommends.
2009-08-21	Two-wheeled Risk (You Want Fries With That?)	InsureBlog	Aa2	Henry Stern wonders if Burger King's recent decision to allow bicycle riders to use the drive-thru in response to bad publicity might not inadvertently increase the franchise's exposure to other risks.
2009-08-22	Accountable Care Organizations: The Good, the Bad and the Better Thanks to Health Affairs	Disease Management Care Blog	Aa2	Jaan Siderov discusses what's potentially bad, good and better about a new option for health care coverage: the Accountable Care Organization (ACO).
2009-08-22	Depression and Debt a Dangerous Combination Article Blog	Debt Kid	Cb2	Does debt have you feeling down? Really down? The Debt Kid deals with debt-driven depression.
2009-08-22	When To Get Personal Property Insurance	Digerati Life	Aa2	Jacques Sprenger rented an apartment where the landlord carried insurance to cover most incidents related to the apartment's structure. Unfortunately, it only covered the structure - after a storm's water damage, Jacques was disappointed to find that policy didn't cover his family's possessions.
2009-08-22	Protect Your Brand Identity	Cash Money Life	Bb2	What risks do companies have when it comes to their brand? Patrick identifies where danger lurks and the things a business owner can do to protect their brand.
2009-08-22	How Safe Is Your Retirement Fund?	Banker Saver	Bb2	Saver Banker says that "we need to ensure that our 401Ks are safe from our own faulty decision-making" in this post which considers the impact of unsound reactions to market conditions.
2009-08-22	Insurance You Can Do Without - Credit Life Insurance	Canadian Finance	Ab2	Tom names another candidate for insurance that just isn't worth buying: credit life insurance. He argues that it just makes more sense to go with "regular" life insurance!
2009-08-22	How to Find Affordable Health Insurance Online	The Dough Roller	Ba2	DR reviews eHealthInsurance, an online tool for shopping health insurance quotes.
2009-08-22	College Students At Risk For Identity Theft	Blogger News Network	Ab2	With college students being prime prey for identity theives, Robert Siciliano's "back-to-school" suggestions for how to best protect themselves from this risk is very timely. Take note, Barbara Williams and Rose Jensen….
2009-08-22	Sleep Apnea Raises Death Risk 46%: Study - Yahoo! News	The Dream Factory	Cb2	Tom Sims comments on a recent news article detailing the potential dangers of sleep apnea.
2009-08-22	Employment Practices & Risk Management	Specialty Insurance	Aa2	How important is properly maintaining personnel records? The folks at Tennant Capital Partners explain how the things you do right can save your company time and money (in the form of employment practices liability insurance premiums), not to mention wasteful litigation should it come to that!
2009-08-22	Daily Drinking May Raise Risk of Several Cancers	Jazba	Ab2	Abbas Mushtaq points to new research that suggests that the price of regular beer and liquor consumption may be an elevated risk of cancer.
2009-08-23	Tips on Maintaining Exhibition Security	Exhibition Security	Dc2	OMG! Philip Rose submits a post with identical pictures as Ramil Parkson's "Trade Show Rental Service" post, but with tips describing what you can do to protect your exhibition at, say, a trade show! What are the odds?
2009-08-23	What Canadians Think of Their Health Care	Colorado Health Insurance Insider	Ab2	Louise reviews the dismal findings of the Canadian Medical Association's 9th Annual National Report card on Health for Canada before arguing that uninsured Americans would be better off with the same kind of system, even if it means delivering less access to health care for all other Americans compared to what they have today.
2009-08-24	New !! Prenup !! Should I Sign a Prenuptial Agreement? Do I Need a Prenuptial Agreement?	Surfer Sam and Friends	Cb2	If you're thinking about getting married, Surfer Sam explains why the next person you might want to talk to is a lawyer.
2009-08-24	Hurricane-Proof your Roof: Insurance, Inventories and Adjusters	The Roofery	Aa2	If your home might at risk of having its roof torn off or damaged in a hurricane, Chris Brooks describes what you need to look for in terms of insurance and what to do after a storm if you do have damage.
2009-08-24	The Cost of Employers Waiting for Heathcare Reform	Clarifying Health	Ab2	Paul Zane Pilzer is impatient with employers holding off making money-saving changes to their health coverage today on account of the uncertainty they face due to potential changes in the laws regulating health insurance now being discussed in Washington D.C.
2009-08-24	Hire Strategically and Reap Big Benefits Article Blog	Risk Management for the 21st Century	Cb2	Nancy Germond has a plan to put highly talented people put out of work due to the current recession back to work as consultants or in part-time positions to improve organizations than might benefit from their knowledge.

Labels: carnival

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